1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fuel cell system and a control method for a fuel cell system for operating an electric heater to consume power of a fuel cell.
2. Background Art
A fuel cell system is a power generation system which oxidizes fuel by an electrochemical process to directly convert, into electric energy, energy discharged with the oxidizing reaction. A fuel cell stack has a membrane electrode assembly in which both side surfaces of a polymer electrolyte membrane for selectively transporting hydrogen ions are sandwiched and held by a pair of electrodes made of a porous material. Each of the pair of electrodes has a catalyst layer which has, as a main component, carbon powder which carries a platinum-based metal catalyst and comes in contact with the polymer electrolyte membrane, and a gas diffusion layer formed on the surface of the catalyst layer and having both air permeability and electron conductivity.
A fuel cell vehicle with a fuel cell system mounted as a power source runs by driving a traction motor by electricity generated by a fuel cell. The fuel cell vehicle includes an electric heater to operate the electric heater in order to consume surplus power of the fuel cell. As a technique related to the fuel cell vehicle including the electric heater, for example, a control method for a fuel cell system is disclosed (see Patent Document 1), which operates an electric heater to consume surplus power of a fuel cell, wherein cooling water circulating through the electric heater is bypassed from a cooling water passage of the fuel cell so that temperature will be lower than or equal to a decomposition temperature of the cooling water.